July 23, 2003

Aussie Michael Rogers of QuickStep, gives an idea of Col Bargaguy's steepness: He spent almost the entire climb in a 39 x 25. That's lower than the stock gears typically installed on racing bikes, which typically have a 39 x 23 as their lowest gear. Rogers says, "It was the first time this year I have ever used that 25. "

There was a lot of speculation about QuickStep's motivation in chasing Hamilton, when they didn't have a GC competitor to help. Rogers clears up what they were thinking:

And as you may have seen, we didn't waste any time getting involved in the mix once we hit the flat. A few people were asking why we chased Hamilton when Richard Virenque was our best rider overall at 14th place (at 22 minutes).

Actually, we still felt like we could get the stage win. We wanted to get Paolo Bettini up for the win. He has ridden very strongly throughout the Tour and he said he had good legs today. So it was normal that we thought if the bunch could bring Hamilton back, we would have a good chance of seeing Paolo get up for the win today.

Okay, it didn't happen that way. Hamilton stayed away to claim a very popular win. We'll keep trying though.

As it worked out, Luca Paolini was QuickStep's highest placing rider, at 4th in the stage.

But the former sprint king's [Zabel's] apparent wane was turned on its head with his second-place finish behind Hamilton, at 1:55 adrift, which rewarded him with a morale-boosting 17 points, and as much in bonus seconds, to push him up to third place.

Zabel now has 143, only five adrift of McEwen (148) and 13 shy of Cooke with Thor Hushovd in fourth (134) and his Credit Agricole team-mate Stuart O'Grady in fifth (128).

As a result, on Thursday and Friday's flat stages Cooke and his fdjeux.com team will have to be doubly careful.

Last night [Team CSC directeur sportif] Bjarne pulled everyone together just to remind us that the Tour was not over. He told us to maintain our focus on the race, and to avoid thinking about Paris.

He said there was a stage similar to today's in the '96 Tour. It was one of the last of the most difficult days of that year's race. He noted that some of the guys had started to relax a bit, and on that day missed an opportunity when an important break went up the road. He shared this story with us to remind us that the race was still in full swing, and there were still opportunities to be made or missed... and that none of us should be asleep at the wheel.

The ironic thing was that I almost fell into the very trap Bjarne was warning us about.

The biggest Golden Ham today is, of course, Tyler Hamilton, but also among the Golden Hams is:

George "Big Rig" Hincapie (United States Postal Service presented by Berry Floor). Men who are preparing for the Fall Classics and the World Championships take note: The "Big Rig" has rebounded from his early season illness, and he is coming for you. George was on point of the peloton over both Cat 1 climbs today, and on the 2nd climb (the Col de Bagarguy) the big Hink had shredded the peloton to about 20 guys. He was rubbing wheels with men like Ullrich and Vinokourov…and they both had looks of discomfort on their faces. He is highly motivated, and will come out of this Tour with amazing form. He has yet to win a World Cup race, but he will by the end of the year. And frankly, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see George win a stage in the Vuelta and go on to wear the Rainbow Jersey next year. Doubt me? Rewatch the Tour tapes, and look at him ride. He's one of the strongest guys in the peloton, and he's been on a leash. When the Tour is over and Postal lets him off the leash again, the rest of the riders had better watch out.

Among the Gazers:

Erik Zabel (Telekom). While Cooke (FDJeux.com), McEwen (Lotto-Domo), and Hushovd (Credit Agricole) were off the back in the gruppetto, The German Champion was able to stick with the Yellow Jersey group. He took 2nd on the stage, and moved up into 3rd in the race for the Green Jersey where he only trails Cooke by 13 points now. Still, his team's fierce chase couldn't catch Hamilton, and he is still without a stage win in this Tour. But with the legs he's shown over the climbs, he should end this drought soon… maybe even as early as tomorrow. Whatever happens, he has turned the Points Competition into a three-horse race again.

I thought this was a little unfair, as Zabel had what it took to ride with the big men, while the other sprinters (minus O'Grady) stayed in the laughing group.

Bruyneel also discussed the game of "bicycle poker" he was playing with Team Bianchi and Team Telekom in the last few stages, tactics that Lance Armstrong described as "brilliant" after Stage 14. "We thought that sending Rubiera and Beltran out in those long breaks was the best strategy you can do, especially the stage to Loudenvielle, which is a very difficult stage for one team to control."

"In the morning before Stage 14, we decided in the team meeting that small groups could go and in big groups, we had to have somebody in there. Better if it was Beltran because he was 13th on GC. The day before with Rubiera it was the same. He was the best guy in the break on GC and the best climber, so two stages in a row it was a smart move for our team to have someone in the break. You can't ride a three week stage race with only one team controlling the race. So we created a situation where other teams had to ride to protect their interests. Each time we were in a great situation."

"I think Lance Armstrong has got his fifth Tour win in his hands," five time Tour winner Eddy Merckx commented to the Belgian VUM newspapers today. "It is not a hundred percent sure yet of course, but I think that the American already took a solid option on the win on Luz-Ardiden. He can say a big 'merçi' to Ullrich though! I don't understand Ullrich's way of handling things. For someone who is only 15 sec behind Armstrong and who has proven to be a better time trialist, it was not him who had to attack. And, if he really couldn't hold back, he surely shouldn't have attacked on the Tourmalet but on the last climb."

Race Leader Lance Armstrong on Tyler Hamilton: "[Smiling] When he went in the beginning I was like, 'Whoa, Ty, that's a bold move.' But at the end, you know, the teams were chasing and [the time gap] stayed about five minutes, and then five minutes, and then five minutes, and I said, 'They'll never catch him,' because I mean, he's a great time trialist, and when you get out there and you know that the stage win's on the line…. And they weren't organized, everyone was tired. [shakes head] They'll never get him."

Tyler Hamilton, riding in pain with a double fracture of his right collarbone since July 6, added another exploit to a classic Tour de France today by going on a long solo breakaway in the Pyrenees and winning the day's stage by nearly two minutes.
"It was incredibly difficult," he admitted. "But today's made up for everything."

Tour leader Lance Armstrong is expressing confidence in his ability to hold off Jan Ullrich in Saturday's time trial. It should make for some terrific television, with Armstrong leaving the start house last, 2 minutes behind Ullrich:

Said Armstrong:

"My goal is to win the stage. I've never lost the final time trial in a Tour de France and I don't plan on starting this year.

"Ullrich will be difficult to beat but going in, my objective is to win."

"Of the seven Tours de France I've done, this race is by far the most painful, and it isn't even over yet. The pain I was going through in the first week was just brutal. I couldn't sleep and I just wanted to survive until the team time trial so that I could help my team mates out. After that stage I felt a little bit better, and I decided to go along, taking it day by day. At this point, my shoulder is better, but it's not a 100%. I still cannot sleep on my side, so I have to lay flat on my back, and I'm getting a bit sick of that. While on the bike, I can pull my handlebars, but I still feel a bit awkward when standing up."

Asked about claims (by Walter Godefroot, the Telekom manager and others) that his broken collarbone was an "American PR trick", Hamilton says:

"Well, Walter has the right to have an opinion, as have everyone else. I'm sad he said that though, and he is welcome to come and visit me anytime, and I'll show him my X-rays, where you can clearly see the two breaks. It disappoints me too, that he would say such a thing, because by doing that he calls me and my team for liars. I don't like it, but I guess that's life."

Before the stage, Hincapie said the they would chase the attacks of the Euskaltel riders. Sure enough, when Mayo went the Posties went after him. But not Hamilton...he was not a big enough threat, and they let him go with a gleam of joy in their eyes for their tough old friend.

General Classification : Hamilton up to 6th

Hamilton's big breakaway moved him within 90 seconds of the two Euskaltels, Mayo (at 5:25) and Zubeldia (at 5:16). Hamilton should certainly make up time on Mayo in the individual time trial Saturday, but Zubeldia has been surprising in the two ITTs so far.

To reach Vinokourov and a podium spot, Hamilton would need to beat Vino by 3:50 in the 49-km time trial, which seems unlikely.

Then again, with Hamilton's confidence, you could see him playing the breakaways some more this week.

Green jersey update: Zabel up to 3rd

Germany's Erik Zabel of Telekom improved to 3rd in the points competition by leading the field sprint in, and claiming 17 points for 2nd place. Stuart O'Grady was 10th in the stage, claiming 6 points.

Baden Cooke remains in first, but he and the other competitors in the overall green jersey finished more than 32 minutes back on the stage. There are three more stages that tend to favor the sprinters: tomorrow, Friday, and Sunday.

Stage 16: Tyler Freaking Hamilton takes Stage 16!

Tyler Freaking Hamilton of Team CSC staged an epic 80+ mile breakaway to win his 1st Tour stage win (he was second to Jan Ullrich in a time trial in 1998). Hamilton picked up 2 minutes on everyone, which will move him up into 6th, with 4th and 5th possibly within striking distance during the Saturday time trial.

My apologies for the lag in getting an update out. I've been a little tapped the last few nights. This feels like the fifth week of the Tour de France for me, not the third. Most GC riders spend the first week of the race laying low, conserving energy. But I feel like I've been on the rivet since the get-go.

Despite the troubles Hamilton outlines in the diary entry (and it's definitely worth reading it all), as I write this, he's got almost 5 minutes on the field, and has a chance to move as high as 4th place on the overall classification if he can stay away.

Australian Bradley McGee of FDJeux.com struggled through the mountains, but is still riding:

Today will go down as one of the best and most exciting stages the Tour has ever seen. And for once I was able to see it live. No, I was not on a big day tussling with the leaders over the Tourmalet, but instead I managed to stick my head through the window of a trailing team car (I had stoppedfor a toilet break half way up the final climb and was making my way back into the groupetto) and witness the final kilometres on the team car's TV. Here we had a sorry-looking bunch of 50 riders lumbering their way up the 13km climb, and half way, with Armstrong already giving race interviews. We finished a half hour down. For us, the racing begins again Thursday and these days are merely for survival. Survival hurts.

Tour headline du jour: Spotted Dick Coming Forward...

14 H 24 - Spotted Dick Coming Forward...
Richard Virenque has, naturally, appeared near the front of the peloton. The man in the polka-dot jersey has earned many of his climing points by hiding in the pack en route to the summit of the climbs and then racing ahead in the dying meters to take points... a tactic some riders have titled "line scabbing".

Australian Bradley McGee of FDJeux.com struggled through the mountains, but is still riding:

Today will go down as one of the best and most exciting stages the Tour has ever seen. And for once I was able to see it live. No, I was not on a big day tussling with the leaders over the Tourmalet, but instead I managed to stick my head through the window of a trailing team car (I had stoppedfor a toilet break half way up the final climb and was making my way back into the groupetto) and witness the final kilometres on the team car's TV. Here we had a sorry-looking bunch of 50 riders lumbering their way up the 13km climb, and half way, with Armstrong already giving race interviews. We finished a half hour down. For us, the racing begins again Thursday and these days are merely for survival. Survival hurts.

Armstrong has ridden a new model of Trek bicycle through most of the Tour (the Madone 5.9), but rode a different model on Monday, when he won Stage 15:

When VeloNews contacted Trek to inquire as to why Armstrong was not riding that nifty new Madone 5.9 and instead riding what appeared to be 2003 technology, spokesman John Riley informed us that Armstrong was actually riding another all-new 2004 Trek bike.

Later:

You also might have noticed that after the tumultuous stage, Armstrong complained of "shifting problems."

Shimano's Chris DiStefano said he and his crew were taken aback by the problem and contacted team mechanics right away.

"When Lance crashed yesterday, [Iban] Mayo fell right on top of his bike," DeStefano said. "This cracked his non-driveside chainstay, which then caused some serious alignment issues. Obviously, this affected his bike's shifting performance, causing gears to skip which caused him to then pop out of his pedal."

''There are some small signs of Lance starting to age, so to speak,'' Carmichael, his personal coach and friend, said.

Even when they are 5,000 miles apart, they are close. Carmichael sends out the daily workout from his base in Colorado, and Armstrong, wherever he is training, ships back his reactions.

''You can't just see it; it's a feel,'' Carmichael said yesterday by telephone from France, during a rest day in the Tour. ''It's not power data, not his heart rate. The heat bothers him more. He doesn't rebound as well from each workout.''

Also:

''Lance attacked for the first time this Tour, and Ullrich raced the last few kilometers uphill as if he were sprinting for a world championship,'' Carmichael said yesterday, still in awe.